


When the Mountains Sing Back

by Geonn



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Epilogue, Episode: s08e01: Deep Breath, F/F, Missing Scene, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-24
Updated: 2014-08-24
Packaged: 2018-02-14 11:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2189586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geonn/pseuds/Geonn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An off-hand comment by Vastra causes Jenny some irritation. (set post-8x01 Deep Breath)</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Mountains Sing Back

A choice few were allowed to see beyond the veil. Those who did often had more pressing issues to deal with at the time. Sometimes Jenny doubted they even processed the fact their persecutor was a lizard woman from the dawn of time before she dispatched them. Those who did see under the veil were often the sort who looked past simple things like gender and species when it came to romantic entanglements. Jenny herself sometimes found herself forgetting the vast differences between herself and the woman she called wife. Vastra was just herself, with all the quirks and foibles that came with cohabitation with another person. They argued, they stewed in silence, they read each other's thoughts... okay, that last perhaps a bit more literally than in most cases, but regardless. In Jenny's mind, she and Vastra were cut from the same cloth. 

_"But he is the Doctor. He has walked this universe for centuries untold, he has seen stars fall to dust. You might as well flirt with a mountain range."_

The words bounced around unwelcome in Jenny's head. They were meant to be antagonistic, a forceful shove to get Clara emotionally wrought, but Jenny had suffered collateral damage. Their argument about dinosaurs - Jenny mentioning fossils while Vastra so casually mentioned having them as childhood pets - brought the feelings of their differences to the surface. Once the dinosaur had been so tragically removed from the situation, once the Doctor had eliminated the threat of Mancini's, there was nothing to do but think and remember. 

There was fear when she first met Vastra, yes. But she'd faced things far more terrifying in her short time on the streets of London. The most fearsome things in the dark wore human faces in her nightmares. Vastra was tender and soft and kind, sweet in her own way, and Jenny soon found herself struggling to find reasons not to fall in love with her. Sex? Didn't get in the way of most people no matter what society said, so why should she be bothered? Species? Such a trifling matter and one that rarely if ever mattered. There were dietary concerns, of course, but for the most part it was hardly different from living with an extraordinarily sensitive person. 

But then... age. There was no denying that one, was there? Vastra was older than London, older than the Doctor, even. She wore her years well. She stayed in one place and adapted so it was harder to see how deep her soul ran. But she had walked through prehistoric groves, and her footprints had been eradicated by dinosaur tracks. Her neighbors had been found buried deep in the ground with their bones turned to rock. She was born to a world dominated by a completely different species and to her humans were still the interlopers and the new neighbors. 

Vastra could be obtuse, crude, offensive, wrong... she could be insulting with a casual comment but she always apologized. She always took the time to make sure that the pain she caused with an inadvertent slight was thoroughly soothed. She told Jenny to speak up as soon as she said something wrong, but this time there hadn't been a proper opening. To take clear her throat in the middle of what Vastra had been doing would have thrown the entire thing off-balance. So Jenny simply pushed aside the twinge of upset and focused on the more important things being said. They had to find Clara's true feelings if she was to be trusted with the Doctor, with being part of their household. 

But now that it was silent... now that everything else had been filed away, that one statement, that one infuriating turn of phrase wouldn't stop turning over in her mind. She retired to their room to clean and put away their swords, and it was there that Vastra found her. "Almost done, ma'am," Jenny said softly. "Keepin' up the pretense."

Vastra paused in the doorway to her wardrobe, her blouse halfway down her shoulders. "Jenny... flirting with the Doctor is not like flirting with a mountain range." Jenny looked up, her eyes wide with surprise that her inner monologue had been so loud. Vastra turned to look at her with one arm across her chest. "A mountain range stands in one place and sees the beauty spreading around it for miles and miles, but it can miss one single lily growing on its own face. But if the lily were to make itself known to the mountain, if it could shout loud enough and be lovely enough, then the mountain would have no choice but to look. The mountain would be unable to see anything else because the lily would take up its entire world once it had revealed itself. And sometimes if a lily speaks loud enough, the mountain will sing in response."

Jenny took a steadying breath, her eyes wet with tears. "I see. Would, ah, you care for some help getting ready for bed?"

"I would hate to force you to maintain the pretense."

Jenny laughed and a tear rolled down her cheek. "Not as your maid. As your wife."

"Then by all means, my dear." Vastra let the blouse fall to the floor and disappeared into the wardrobe. Jenny chuckled, wiped at her cheeks before following her wife into the other room.


End file.
